Home > Limbaugh to troops: "Be a man about it. ... You chose to be there"

Limbaugh to troops: "Be a man about it. ... You chose to be there"

On the June 18 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show, Limbaugh spoke to a caller who posed a hypothetical question: What if the caller were a liberal U.S. soldier in Iraq who had been exposed to an hour per day of Limbaugh's rants that "liberals are bad for America" -- broadcast by the American Forces Radio and Television Service (AFRTS) -- and then was killed. Limbaugh responded that the soldier should "[b]e a man about it ... laugh it off and be wrong about it. If the bomb goes off, the bomb goes off. You chose to be there." Limbaugh went on at length denying to the caller that he says "the words" liberals are bad for the United States. But when the caller left the line, Limbaugh asserted, "Liberal ideology is dangerous for America."

From the June 18 broadcast of The Rush Limbaugh Show:

CALLER: Well, let -- I'm going to give you a hypothetical. Let's say I'm a soldier in Iraq -- Iraq. I'm a Liberal. OK? ... An hour a day, I'm listening to why Liberals are bad for America. Boom! I get blown up.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: I don't accept -- I don't accept the premise. I have -- I don't say the words Liberals are bad for America. What I say is, Al Qaeda is bad for America, and Liberals don't believe it. What I've said is Saddam is bad for America, and Liberals don't believe it.

CALLER: I totally believe --

LIMBAUGH: Liberals think that George Bush is more dangerous for America than our enemies. That's what I say.

CALLER: I'm a Liberal, Rush, and I don't believe any of those contingents that you made. So, then your premise would be wrong. ... Because I -- I'm -- I'm a die-hard Liberal.

LIMBAUGH: OK. If you don't believe it, then you're driving along in your jeep and you laugh it off because I'm wrong. Be a man about it. ... If you -- if -- if you think I'm wrong, you'll laugh it off and be wrong about it. If the bomb goes off, the bomb goes off. You chose to be there.

[...]

LIMBAUGH: Ladies and gentlemen, you know, the -- the -- the -- this business about Liberals being bad for America. I'll -- I'll tell you what. Liberals aren't. Liberal ideology is dangerous for America. I mean, there's no question. I've -- I've clearly have said this over and over again. And I'm not backtracking from it. But I've never called them -- I've called them un-American, or challenged their patriotism.

All I've said is the truth. Liberals cut the defense budget every time we've been preparing to fight a war against Al Qaeda. Liberals undermine the CIA at the very time we should have been strengthening the institution to fight Al Qaeda. Liberal representatives in Congress, as I speak, seek to undermine the war effort with committee hearings aimed at besmirching the war effort, our troops, and our commander-in-chief.

And there's no question that's what this is all about. This is an effort to derail the war effort in a political sense, to hurt George W. Bush and to set up grounds for impeachment if he wins reelection.

Liberals today put their pursuit of power ahead of the national interests. Whatever mess they make, they'll fix it in their own image when they get their power back. This is why 400 Liberal professors yesterday called for the beginning of impeachment investigations against the president and his top advisors. Four hundred Liberal professors demand impeachment investigations begin.

And then we've got all these ex-State Department people claiming that Bush is ruining our foreign policy. These are all Liberals. It is patently obvious to anybody that wants to be objective why they're doing this. And it certainly is not to assist the effort in which the country finds itself.